The accent circonflexe (^) exists in French words to replace the “s” that no longer exists but used to be there in older French.
For example: fenêtre used to be fenestre
It is still possible to see the “s” at times in family words like “défenestrer”.
knowing this, « être » becomes much more regular :
être → estre (es, est, sommes, ê[s]tes, sont ; ser-)
some French derivations become clearer :
fenêtre → défenestrer → L. fenestra
hôpital → hospitaliser (E. hospital, ise)
intérêt → intéressant (E. interest, -ing)
ancêtre → ancestral (E. ancestor, -ral)
épître → épistolaire (E. epistle)
some English cognates become more obvious :
hôtel → hostel (E. ‘hotel’ borrowed from French)
forêt → forest (tipp to remember ^ goes on the ‹e›)
pâte, pâté → pasta, paste
vêtements → vestments (ie. clothes)
sometimes, the acute replaces the circumfex for phonetic reasons :
ḗcole → escole → L. schola (E. school)
ḗtranger → estrangier (E. stranger)
ḗtudier → estudier (E. study)
dḗgoûtant → desgoustant (E. disgusting)
dḗbarquer → desembarquer (E. disembark)
rḗpondre → respondre (E. respond)
rḗpublique → L. res publica
Also, where « c → ch » (eg. cantare→ chanter) :
château → castel (E. castle)
and « w → gu » (eg. war→ guerre ; warden→ guardian) :
guêpe → E. wasp ! (this is my n° 1 favourite cognate)
fantôme → L. phantasma (E. ‘phantom’ borrowed from French)
Pâques → Gk. pásxa → Am. pésaḫ (E. Paschal)
Also just be aware that the circumflex has some other uses too, like distinguishing « sur — sûr » or « dû » and the vowel quality in « âge »
Where was this post when I was doing A-Level French! This is actually a really interesting language change called “syncope” (the loss of a medial segment within a word) and what makes it even more interesting to me is that not only was the -s- dropped post vocalically and largely before voiceless stops, but that the circumflex was (unnecessarily but coolly) adopted as an orthographic marker of the lost -s-. Even more interesting is that syncope usually occurs in vowels. I love this.
kianamaiart
gummygunk
vaporwave
stormborns
